After Munnar, Thekkady was still chilly but not as much. Travel time till there was about 5 hours. The trip was fun with 100% to less than 10% visibility and vice versa in a matter of minutes. The fog and clouds moved really fast. The hotel in Thekkady that I was in, had their very own spice plantations in between the lodges. It hosted a variety of spiders nestled in between the pepper and coffee. These also served as a very nice spot for the birds (mainly racket tailed drongos and treepies). The evening was spent boating in Periyar lake. Managed to see a few gaurs, elephants, sambar, boars and a lot of nesting cormorants. 2 days later one of the boats capsized there but that is a different story and I was no longer there.
After a night trek(7-10 pm) to see a few sambar, we took a jeep drive to the heart of the forest the next day morning. A forest lodge is maintained by the Kerala govt there which provides a host of activities. Saw a few more gaurs at a distance on the way. After the night trek, didnt feel like trekking some more so we took another jeep safari. Animals seen: elephants, malabar squirrel, nilgiri langurs and more birds. The guides are truly dedicated and they did their best so we could find animals even during the off season. I was told it is far busier in the on season. A look at a cardamom processing unit, a boating session to a nearby waterfall and a jeep drive through the forest back to the lodge in pouring rain wrapped up the day. Too tired to stroll around spice markets, I gave that a miss.
Proceeded to Alleppy to check into a resort the next day. The resort was accessible only through a boat. An evening boat-ride to watch the fishing in the sunset was how we ended the day. Took a boat ride in a row boat to catch some more birds early in the morning. The resort had its own private backwater area where pedal boating was complimentary. Tried fishing a little bit as well and ended up feeding the fishes rather than catch any. A crow made off with the remaining bait.
With an hour's drive we got to the house boat. This was a single ac room luxury boat with a cook and 2 navigators. Lazily crawling through the areas where canoes fight for supremacy in Nehru cup races and watching canoes parked on the side was the agenda. There are of course house boats of all sizes running all over the place. A few canoes selling fish and prawns serve as door to door salesman. Don't think they would have to go too far for refills. Stepped out a bit to a jungle nearby to see a variety of flora(spices, teak, mahagony and more) but otherwise stayed on the boat. The boat chugged on slowly to Kumarokum the next day morning.
After Munnar, Thekkady was still chilly but not as much. Travel time till there was about 5 hours. The trip was fun with 100% to less than 10% visibility and vice versa in a matter of minutes. The fog and clouds moved really fast. The hotel in Thekkady that I was in, had their very own spice plantations in between the lodges. It hosted a variety of spiders nestled in between the pepper and coffee. These also served as a very nice spot for the birds (mainly racket tailed drongos and treepies). The evening was spent boating in Periyar lake. Managed to see a few gaurs, elephants, sambar, boars and a lot of nesting cormorants. 2 days later one of the boats capsized there but that is a different story and I was no longer there.
After a night trek(7-10 pm) to see a few sambar, we took a jeep drive to the heart of the forest the next day morning. A forest lodge is maintained by the Kerala govt there which provides a host of activities. Saw a few more gaurs at a distance on the way. After the night trek, didnt feel like trekking some more so we took another jeep safari. Animals seen: elephants, malabar squirrel, nilgiri langurs and more birds. The guides are truly dedicated and they did their best so we could find animals even during the off season. I was told it is far busier in the on season. A look at a cardamom processing unit, a boating session to a nearby waterfall and a jeep drive through the forest back to the lodge in pouring rain wrapped up the day. Too tired to stroll around spice markets, I gave that a miss.
Proceeded to Alleppy to check into a resort the next day. The resort was accessible only through a boat. An evening boat-ride to watch the fishing in the sunset was how we ended the day. Took a boat ride in a row boat to catch some more birds early in the morning. The resort had its own private backwater area where pedal boating was complimentary. Tried fishing a little bit as well and ended up feeding the fishes rather than catch any. A crow made off with the remaining bait.
With an hour's drive we got to the house boat. This was a single ac room luxury boat with a cook and 2 navigators. Lazily crawling through the areas where canoes fight for supremacy in Nehru cup races and watching canoes parked on the side was the agenda. There are of course house boats of all sizes running all over the place. A few canoes selling fish and prawns serve as door to door salesman. Don't think they would have to go too far for refills. Stepped out a bit to a jungle nearby to see a variety of flora(spices, teak, mahagony and more) but otherwise stayed on the boat. The boat chugged on slowly to Kumarokum the next day morning.
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